Congressman John Shimkus (Rep-Illinois) is lobbying for the Chair in the House Energy and Commerce Committee partly on the basis of an argument that the actual “educated” guessers in the science community have no business telling him or his government whether human activity is hastening climate change.

The very idea that humankind is capable of changing the climate is “arrogant,” Shimkus says. Given the numerous instances in which human impact on climate has already been proved – through the effects of such things as deforestation or the lofting of so many aerosols into the air that it actually cools the planet (as we did in North America before the 1970s Republicans brought us the EPA) – you have to wonder how fiercely, how absolutely religiously determined Shimkus is to ignore evidence. Here’s a great taste from KTVI in St. Louis.